We felt early in our marriage God had plans for us to adopt a child into our family one day. Over the next seven years, we explored every form of adoption including international, domestic, and foster to adopt. We always had adoption on our minds but also assumed it would happen later in life. Meanwhile, we welcomed a biological son, moved to Florida from the Midwest, and suffered through a miscarriage.

In Summer 2020, we felt God telling us now was the time to pursue domestic infant adoption. We found CFS online and scheduled a meeting with Jerry. We reflected on the meeting for a while discerning if this was really the right step for us. Jerry called us back to check-in, and that prompted us to start the necessary paperwork.

From June to October we prayed fervently asking God for direction, discernment, and guidance as we navigated all the new emotions that surrounded the reality of adopting. As we submitted the paperwork and completed the home studies, we moved forward with confidence, anticipation, and excitement trusting God had a beautiful child for us in his perfect timing.

We also prayed for the birth mom of our child. We prayed she would feel God’s love, strength, and sustenance through every step of her journey.

Now the real story starts! It was the day before Thanksgiving and I was putting our son down for an afternoon nap. My husband came in with Jerry on speakerphone. After much suspense, Jerry finally told us there was a newborn baby boy who was in need of a family and that we could meet him today! My heart started racing with joy and excitement. There are no words to describe how excited and happy we were to learn of our second son.

We were also told we would get to meet this child’s birth mom that afternoon, and we were elated! The fact she selected us, wanted to meet us, and that we would get to sit down and talk with her was a huge blessing.

We got ready, hopped into the car, and drove to CFS.

We spoke with Jerry for a few moments until Jasmine brought our son’s beautiful birth mom in to meet us. We were all a little nervous but mostly so excited. We talked for a few hours about anything we could think to share. We wanted to learn as much about her as possible. We learned her favorite tv shows, favorite flower, what she liked to do for fun, what her family was like, and the list went on. What a privilege to learn so much about her to eventually share with our new son. We took some pictures together, gave hugs, and created a bond that will last a lifetime.

From there, we went straight to the hospital. He was born early, so when we first laid eyes on him, he was in an incubator, under the bilirubin lights, with IVs, an OG tube, and many monitoring wires – but we had never seen anything more precious and beautiful. Despite all the care he was receiving we got to hold him right away to let him know we were his new parents. Our hearts were bursting with love, joy, and peace.

We knew God had sent this baby to us, and we were ready to love him as our own and welcome him into our family.

Our son was in the NICU for 2.5 weeks, and my husband and I took shifts cuddling, holding, feeding, and reading to him 2-3 times a day for his entire stay. When he was discharged, we took him home to introduce him to his new big brother. It truly felt like he was a missing piece to our family, and we were excited to finally be together as a new family of 4.

Since then, our family has been flourishing, and we couldn’t be more thankful to CFS for their instrumental part in uniting us with our precious son.

We will also be forever grateful for his birth mom, the selfless gift she has given us, and the precious life she has entrusted to us. 

And all the praise and glory be to God for His grace and provision.

~ The “S” Family, CFS Adoptive Family

Today, the “S” Family has an open adoption with their son’s birth mother. They exchange pictures, recipes, holiday traditions, letters and words of encouragement. If you’re pregnant in Gainesville, Tallahassee, Ocala, Jacksonville or anywhere in between and want to give your baby up for adoption, you can contact CFS case workers 24/7 to create your own unique Adoption Plan. You can choose to have a closed adoption, semi-open adoption or open adoption like the “S” Family! Contacting and/or meeting with CFS does NOT obligate you to work with us. Our goal is to provide you accurate information on your options, modern day adoption, and the adoption process. All of our services are completely free.

We are ready to answer your call or text to discuss judgment free options with you. Consider your options for your unplanned pregnancy. Speak with us 24/7 by voice @ 8002262367 or text @ 352.600.2138

UNDERSTANDING POSITIVE ADOPTION LANGUAGE: Blog posts of CFS are written using words people search for if they are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. To reach women and provide options to them, we use language our SEO agency suggests, not the positive adoption language we prefer to use! We consider women making an adoption plan as wanting to place her child with an adoptive family, but many times she first uses words like “give my baby up” for adoption.